Sakura of DOOM

Thorn is taken in as a baby and raised by Duun, a hatani who trains Thorn to be a hatani as well. I am still not entirely sure what a hatani is—it seems like some sort of combination of judge, super tracker/hunter, and master reader of emotions and motives. In short, almost all the stuff I tend to associate with good court intrigue and/or assassination and/or spy narratives. And although his hatani training makes Thorn different from everyone else, it doesn't explain why he doesn't look like anyone around him.

This book reminded me of Ender's Game, and coffeeandink mentioned it reminded her of Octavian Nothing. All of them are about children used as experiments, some for purposes crueler than others; they are about living in a lie, being deceived by everyone, and being isolated from everyone. I think Ender and Thorn feel the pressure to succeed far more than Octavian, but Thorn and Octavian's loneliness and isolation is more real. Ender's Game is the fantasy version of the scenario while Octavian Nothing is the cruelest; Cuckoo's Egg strikes the balance in between where I can see it fulfilling some adolescent wishes (as Ender's Game did for me) but in making the psychological weight of the deception and Thorn's dependence on Duun much greater. Thorn is always more at a loss than Ender, and the reader feels just as lost as he does—either Cherryh's prose is particularly elliptical here, or it just seems that way to me because this is the book that started my grand Cherryh read.

On a superficial note, Thorn's constant worried monologues were a little difficult for me to read, partially because they were italicized and partially because we were so much in Thorn's head that I had a difficult time figuring out what exactly was going on outside of it.

( Spoilers can't say can't )

In conclusion: good ending and good take on a particular SF trope, but it doesn't feel quite as substantial as some other Cherryh's I've read.

Third book in a series. First is Gate of Ivrel, then Wells of Shiuan, which I didn't read because I couldn't find it in the library.

Morgaine and her liegeman Vanye continue to travel through space and time to close the mysterious Gates that the qhal have left open. I think they're basically coming right out of the second book, because quite a few people from Shiuan are chasing after them when they land on Azeroth. Much chaos ensues.

I found that I love all the parts with Morgaine and Vanye interacting; unsurprisingly, I am a complete sucker for Morgaine's focus on the mission and Vanye's care for her, despite her prickliness. I was less interested with all Vanye's interactions with Roh, and for some reason, the world never quite grabbed me.

And then, just as I was getting bored, Cherryh threw in this totally wonderful moment between Morgain and Vanye in which nearly nothing is said that doesn't have to do with Vanye's hair (it makes sense, I swear) and has the emotional wallop of five elephants. Which means I'm reading the next book.

The first Cherryh book I've read since reading The Fortress in the Eye of Time back in eighth grade or something! Luckily, I liked this one much better than Fortress, which I found singularly boring back then. Maybe a reread will change that, who knows?

Anyhow, I picked this one up because riemannia had mentioned how Kinsale's The Prince of Midnight reminded her of it. Bonus points of non-European setting! The weird thing is that I can't quite specifically pinpoint why the setting feels Asian because Cherryh thankfully doesn't do that whole subservient Asian thing. The place names and people names are a mix of Chinese and Japanese, but the book feels distinctly Chinese to me. This may just be me projecting; someone more familiar with Japanese history may find it Japanese. I think it was something about the emphasis on government and regents, on the importance of a good emperor and on the havoc a bad one can do, that felt Chinese to me. This is quite likely because of how so many heroes in Chinese culture seem to be poet-philosophers who are the lone voice of reason against a bad emperor and end up being exiled because of it, although I'm not sure if that is actually true or if that is just a cultural preoccupation that influences the interpretation of the literature.

Taizu is a peasant girl whose family has been killed by the bad official Ghitu, and she decides to seek revenge be convincing the legendary warrior Saukendar to train her. Unfortunately for her, Saukendar is a little lame and not at all inclined to train her or abandon his nice hermit existence of her revenge.

I particularly enjoyed the parts of the story that dealt with how Saukendar trains Taizu because of the detail, though I found myself consistently annoyed at Saukendar for his constant belief that a girl couldn't possibly fight that well, despite Taizu's obvious skill, and for his constant desire to sleep with Taizu against her will. Ok, I get he's in lust and hasn't slept with someone for nine years or so, but good lord. Props to Cherryh for not doing the obvious romance novel thing, even though they do eventually fall in love. I hope I'm not spoiling anything here, as it seemed pretty obvious from the start.

I didn't like Saukendar that much because of the reasons above, but I really adored Taizu and her quiet strength and her iron will. She decides on what she wants and never lets go, and I wish that I had gotten to see some scenes from her POV instead of Saukendar's. Oh well.

I'm not quite sure if I liked the part of the book that concerns itself with the revenge, and I'm not sure if I completely believe the ending, but hey, I found a non-sporky Asian-tinged fantasy!